Just last January, I was one of the scarlet-and-gray masses standing a little taller as a result of the Buckeyes finally getting the SEC-loss monkey off their backs.
At the time, everyone had a curious eyebrow raised given the NCAA’s decision to allow the tattoo bargain shoppers to participate in OSU’s Sugar Bowl victory.
The old news that had OSU dismiss then-head coach Jim Tressel and say their goodbyes to quarterback Terrelle Pryor was enough to send the whole state of Ohio spinning. But the newest nugget coming from Columbus about Devier Posey, Dan Herron and Marcus Hall being paid for presumably playing Xbox makes me wonder if the spin cycle will ever end.
Now instead of standing taller, I’m searching for some sand to bury my head and drown out the chorus of laughs flooding over the Michigan-Ohio border.
Speaking of muting out annoying people, is there a way to muzzle dreadfully loquacious Ohio State President E. Gordon Gee?
Gee told the Columbus Dispatch on Wednesday that his school’s embattled compliance department was “A poster child of compliance.”
For those keeping track at home, that is the third moronic thing Gee has said to the media in a year. First he said Ohio State football deserved credit for not playing the Little Sisters of the Poor, then, in an attempt at humor that could not have been more poorly timed, he said he was just happy Tressel did not fire him at the press conference on Tressel’s infractions.
I really wish Tressel would have fired him.
What Gee has done throughout this entire debacle is equivalent to a toddler sticking his fingers in his ears and repeating “Nuh-Uh.”
Through it all, Luke Fickell has been given the impossible task of keeping an extremely young team focused on their opponents and last Saturday’s eyesore of a loss to Michigan State was proof that Fickell doesn’t have enough fingers to plug all the leaks of this sinking ship.
A lot of people want to blame the offensive line for the deluge of sacks the Buckeyes surrendered to Sparty, but I point the finger of blame at offensive coordinator Jim Bollman and quarterback coach Nick Siciliano.
Bollman called a grand total of one screen pass in the face of nonstop MSU blitzing.
Siciliano could be the least qualified position coach in the FBS.
After Saturday’s loss, former OSU quarterback Justin Zwick pointed out on Twitter that Siciliano was never a starting quarterback in high school and never played a down of college football. Siciliano’s last job? Video coordinator.
The Buckeyes basically have Uncle Rico from Napoleon Dynamite coaching their quarterbacks.
The OSU coaches and noncompliant players can’t get out of the team’s way and the schedule is not doing them any favors either.
This weekend they travel to Nebraska and next weekend head to Champagne to take on a talented Illinois squad. Then the Buckeyes cap the month off against what appears to be the best Wisconsin team ever.
Plus, sooner or later, the NCAA Committee on Infractions is going to rain misery down on the program.
Just wake me for the press conference naming Urban Meyer as the next coach of the Buckeyes.
BOB STRICKLEY may be reached at 740-353-3101, ext. 203, or bstrickley@heartlandpublications.com.
I for one have lost all confidence in this organization and millions of $$ they collect and the way they protect thier position. While they punish students for summer jobs? Coaches get big $$,the Universities, the Presidnts like GEE at Ohio State woefully overpaid and parents dolling out yet another increase in tution.I am sick of it all. Gee ..go back to Vandy.